A helicopter flew into a crane on a 600ft tower block in central London today and cartwheeled on to the street in a hail of wreckage and blazing aviation fuel.

Two people died and 15 were injured after the copter’s rotor blades hit the crane cab. Debris crashed down on Wandsworth Road, 20 yards from Vauxhall station as thousands of commuters made their way to work.

Cars were set on fire as the fuel poured down a road and there were reports of people shouting for help. A motorcyclist was unable to brake in time and rode into the flames.

Witness Craig Marchland said: “People were screaming. It was madness, absolute madness. There was smoke to the eyeballs. The explosion was like a bomb. There were three cars on fire. One was completely disintegrated, you couldn’t see it at all.”

Another said of the helicopter: “There was a loud crack and it came spinning out of control towards us. Nobody would have got out of there alive.”

Commander Neil Basu of the Met Police said: “It was something of a miracle that this was not many, many times worse.” There were dozens of trains in the area each packed with upwards of 800 passengers. Dense smoke drifted across the tracks and train drivers hit the brakes because they could not see.

Vauxhall Tube and rail stations were evacuated over Vauxhall Bridge to Pimlico. Traffic along the whole of Millbank and both sides of the river was jammed and commuters were forced to make their way to work on foot. No pedestrians were allowed across Vauxhall Bridge.

The twin-engine Agusta 109, which was not carrying any passengers, clipped the crane at just before 8am. The two dead were the pilot and a person on the ground who is thought to have been struck with blazing debris.

The pilot was named this afternoon as Captain Pete Barnes, 50, who is believed to be married with children. He had over 25 years’ experience and was working for Surrey-based firm Rotormotion which carried VIP guests and has also worked flying helicopter on films including James Bond and Saving Private Ryan.

Firemen rescued one man from a burning car which was hit by debris near a Sainsbury’s in Wandsworth Road near Vauxhall Bridge.

Four people were taken to hospital by ambulance crews, one was reported by police as critically injured and three were said to be suffering minor injuries. Five others walked into hospital with minor injuries and the ambulance service said they were treating four people at the scene for shock.

The helicopter was on a scheduled flight from its base in Redhill in Surrey to Elstree to undertake a chartered flight. A spokesman for the London Heliport at Battersea said it had received a request from Heathrow air traffic control to accept the helicopter, whose pilot had asked to be diverted due to bad weather.

The spokesman said they did not have any contact with the pilot.

The aircraft was following the line of the Thames when it hit the crane on the 51-storey The Tower, One St George Wharf, one of Europe’s tallest residential blocks.

One witness reported the aircraft “rocking and shaking from side to side” before it crashed. One said the wreckage narrowly missed a commuter train as it crashed to the ground.

Eyewitness Michael Gavin was standing at Vauxhall station facing the tower block when he heard a loud bang. He told BBC News: “The top of the crane was obscured by fog so I didn’t see the impact. But I heard a bang and saw the body of the helicopter falling to the ground along with pieces of the crane and then a large plume of smoke afterwards.”

Another said: “I heard a helicopter and looked up but didn’t think anything of it as we see a lot round here. But then it hit the crane and there was a massive bang. It was making a terrible noise and then got lower and lower before crashing. It was really frightening and terrible to see. It was like something out of a film.”

Another witness said: “A motorbike drove straight into the flames because he had nowhere to go. It is a scene I will never forget.” London Fire Brigade station manager Bruce Grain, one of the first firefighters at the scene, said it “was absolute chaos” but he said the fire was put out within 20 minutes.

Fire crews were examining the crane at the St George’s Wharf development which they said was “in a precarious position”. They were also working with specialist contractors to ensure the safety of the crane which was damaged.

Peter Cowup, assistant commissioner at London Fire Brigade, said: “At the moment there’s no imminent risk of that crane collapsing.” The helicopter is believed to be an AgustaWestland AW109, a lightweight, twin-engine helicopter with eight seats. Records for the helicopter thought to be involved in the crash — G-CRST — show that it was built in 1997 and has twin engines made by Pratt & Whitney of the USA. It has been registered with leasing company Castle Air of Liskeard, Cornwall, since February 2011.

Construction workers who were working on the site of the crane told how they were immediately evacuated from the site minutes after they got to work at around 8.05am. Chris Yates, an independent aviation expert, told Sky News: “Helicopters are not supposed to come within 500 feet of any structure.”

A Civil Aviation Authority spokesman said pilots were notified of tall buildings when filing flight plans, “as was the case with the crane that was involved in this morning’s accident.”

He said: “Helicopter operations in central London are strictly controlled.” One possibility is that the pilot veered off course slightly in the mist. Cloud in central London was very low at the time.